. The pagan tribes of Borneo; a description of their physical, moral and intellectual condition, with some discussion of their ethnic relations. ungle grows up sorapidly and thickly that by the third year the weedshave almost died out, choked by the larger same land is then prepared again by felling theyoung jungle and burning it as before, and a cropis again raised from it. When a piece of land hasbeen prepared and cropped in this way some threeor four times, at intervals of two, three, or fouryears, the crop obtainable from it is so inferiorin quantity that the people usually und
. The pagan tribes of Borneo; a description of their physical, moral and intellectual condition, with some discussion of their ethnic relations. ungle grows up sorapidly and thickly that by the third year the weedshave almost died out, choked by the larger same land is then prepared again by felling theyoung jungle and burning it as before, and a cropis again raised from it. When a piece of land hasbeen prepared and cropped in this way some threeor four times, at intervals of two, three, or fouryears, the crop obtainable from it is so inferiorin quantity that the people usually undertakethe severe labour of felling and burning a patchof virgin forest, rather than continue to makeuse of the old areas. In this way a large villageuses up in the course of some twelve or fifteenyears all the land suitable for cultivation within aconvenient distance, i,e. within a radius of somethree miles. When this state of affairs results, thevillage is moved to a new site, chosen chiefly withan eye to the abundance of land suitable for thecultivation of the padi crop. After ten or moreyears the villagers will return, and the house or. Plate 55. IBANS FELLING A TREE. AGRICULTURE 99 houses will be reconstructed on the old site or oneadjacent to it, if no circumstances arise to temptthem to migrate to a more distant country, and if thecourse of their life on the old site has run smoothly,without misfortunes such as much sickness, con-flagrations, or serious attacks by other this interval the land is regarded as beingalmost as good as the virgin forest land, and hasthe advantage that the jungle on it can be moreeasily felled. But since no crop equals that obtain-able from virgin soil, it is customary to include atleast a small area of it in the operations of eachyear. Each family cultivates its own patch of land,selecting it by arrangement with other families, andworks as large an area as the strength and numberof the roomhold permits. A hillside sloping downto
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectethnolo, bookyear1912
